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Pitch, time, and force, are the elements of expression, and a proper combination of them in reading and speaking, constitutes good elocution. When, therefore, the stammerer becomes master of these elements, as well as the elements of the language, he may commence speaking and reading. In his first attempts at conversation, both teacher and pupil should speak in a deliberate manner, with a full, firm tone of voice, and in a very low pitch.

The stammerer should now commit to memory a short piece which requires to be spoken with explosive force; for example, "Satan's speech to his legions." The members of the class should stand at a sufficient distance from each other to prevent their hands coming in contact when their arms are extended. They should then pronounce the speech in concert, after the teacher, and accompany it with appropriate gesticulation. It should be repeated again and again, till each pupil can give it proper expression, both as regards voice and gesture. Each pupil should then, in turn, take the place of the teacher and give out the speech to the class. To prevent the pupil's stammering, while he is performing the teach. er's part, the teacher himself should play an accompaniment on the violoncello, violin, organ, drum, or some other instrument. At first the notes should be made very loud; but if the effort of the pupil, standing out of the class, is likely to be successful, they should gra. dually be made softer and softer, and, finally, the accompaniment omitted altogether. This piece should be pronounced alternately with one which requires to be spoken with long quantity and in a low pitch, as "Ossian's Address to the Sun."

When the pupil has mastered these two kinds of reading, he may take up dignified dialogue, and, lastly, conversational pieces. He should drawl out difficult words, which are generally those having short vowels preceded by labials, dentals, and gutturals.

In very bad cases of stammering, the pupil should first sing the words, then drawl them, then pronounce them with very long quantity, and thus gradually approximate to common speaking.

As soon as the pupils can speak without stammering, they should recite singly in a very large room, or in the open air, at a distance from the audience, which, at first, should consist of the members of the class only. A few visiters should be occasionally introduced, and the number should be gradually increased. In this way the stammerer will soon acquire sufficient confidence to speak before a large assembly. In some cases it may be expedient for the stammerer to recite before an audience in a dark room; but as he acquires confidence, light should be gradually admitted.

Stammerers, instead of speaking immediately after inspiration, as they should do, often attempt to speak immediately after expiration, when, of course, they have no power to speak. The lungs, like a bellows, perform their part in the process of speaking, best, when plentifully supplied with air. This is an important fact, and should

be remembered, not only by stammerers, but also by those who nave occasion to read or speak in public. Loud speaking, long-continued, with the lungs but partially distended, is very injurious to these organs it is apt to occasion a spitting of blood, which is not unfrequently a precursor of pulmonary consumption. But loud speaking, with proper management of the breath, is a healthful exercise: be sides strengthening the muscles which it calls into action, it pro motes the decarbonization of the blood, and, consequently, exerts a salutary influence on the system generally. [See additional remarks, in Appendix at the end of the volume, where will be found an account of the new surgical operation for the radical cure of stammering, which has been performed, with more or less success, both in Europe and in this country.]

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SECTION II.

PITCH.

ITCH is the degree of the elevation of sounds.

As pitch regards the elevation of sounds, it respects their acuteness and gravity. I use the term pitch in its widest signification. In the science of music, it is used not only in the sense in which I employ it, but it also has a special application: in the latter, it is applied to the medium note, the regulating note to which instruments are brought by the act of tuning. When applied in this sense, it is termed concert-pitch. The note which has been adopted, by common consent, as the pitch-note, is A, the open note of the second string of the violin: it is written in the second space of the treble staff.

A lax division of pitch is into high and low; in other words, into acute and grave; (those notes being called high, or acute, which are above the natural pitch of the voice; and those low, or grave, which are below it)

Strictly speaking, the application of high and low, to pitch, is without philosophic foundation: it has originated, not from any

principles in the acuteness and gravity of sound, but from the relative position of the notes in the graphic scale. This is obvious from the fact that the degrees of the scale may be exemplified in a horizontal line, by varying the forms of the graphic notes, as was done by the Greeks.

An exact division of pitch, as demonstrated by the diatonic scale, is into tones and semitones.*

The word tone, as here employed, signifies a certain degree of difference in pitch between two notes, as that between the first and second note of the scale. But in some cases we use the word tone, as synonymous with note; for instance, in some persons the tones of the voice are more musical than in others - that is, the notes of the voice.

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The diatonic scale consists of seven sounds, moving discretely from grave to acute, or from acute to grave, by different degrees of pitch, of which the semitone may be the common measure, or divisor, without a fraction. The scale, however, is not complete without the octave, which is a repetition of the first note in the eighth degree.

The notes do not ascend by equal degrees of pitch, but by tones and semitones; the semitones occurring between the third and fourth, and seventh and eighth. The order of the scale, therefore, is as follows: two tones and a semitone, three tones and a semitone. And should it be desirable to extend the series of sounds, the eighth note of the first octave will become the first note of the second octave; the eighth note of the second octave, the first note of the third, and so on.

In teaching the pupil to "raise and fall the eight notes," as it is called, the monosyllables, Do, Re, Mi, Fa, Sol, La, Si,† may be employed.

Diag. 4 is a graphic representation of the scale. The heavy, horizontal, parallel lines, represent the notes; and the spaces between them, the consecutive intervals of the scale.

* DIATONIC [Greek, da, by or through, and Tovos sound]. Ascending or descending by sounds whose proximate intervals are not more than a tone, nor less than a semitone.

+ Pronounced Dỗ, Rả, Mè, Fả, Số1, Lâ, Sẻ.

-8-1-Do

THE DIATONIC SCALE. (Diag. 4.)

-7--Si

-6--La

-Sol

-4--Fa-

-3--Mi

|-2--Re

-1--Do-

An interval is a difference in pitch. Intervals are either discrete, or concrete. A discrete interval is the difference in pitch between any two notes which vary from each other in acuteness and gravity. A concrete interval is that portion of the scale through which the voice slides on a concrete of speech.

The difference in pitch between the first and second note of the scale, is called the interval of a tone, or second; between the second and third, a tone; between the third and fourth, a semitone; between the fourth and fifth, a tone; between the fifth and sixth, a tone; between the sixth and seventh, a tone; between the seventh and eighth, a semitone.

The difference in pitch between the first and third note of the scale, is called the interval of a third; between the first and fourth, the interval of a fourth; between the first and fifth, the interval of a fifth; between the first and sixth, the interval of a sixth; between the first and seventh, the interval of a seventh; between the first and eighth, the interval of an octave.

The intervals between the first and third, fourth and sixth, and fifth and seventh, are called major thirds; because they contain two tones, or four semitones; but as the intervals between the second and fourth, third

and fifth, and sixth and eighth, contain but three semitones, they are denominated minor thirds.

In the expression of our thoughts by oral language, we employ three sorts of voice-the natural voice, the falsetto voice, and the whispering voice, which I shall now attempt to describe.

The medium compass of the voice, in those whose voices have been properly cultivated, is three octaves.* There is, however, a point of pitch at which the voice, in ascending the scale, is said to break. This point, in a majority of persons, is about two octaves above the lowest note of the voice. The natural voice embraces all the notes below this point; the falsetto, all the notes above it. (See Diag. 5.)

The Italians call the natural voice voce di

Diag. 5.

Medium Compass of the Human Voice.

Natural Voice.

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2-Re

1-Do-
Si-

6-La

5-Sol

4-Fa-
3-Mi-

2-Re

Treble.

Tenor.

Bass.

petto, and the falsetto voice voce di testa; † because they suppose the former to come from the chest, and the latter from the head. This error has arisen from a want of anatomical and physiological knowledge of the vocal organs. Voice is never formed in the chest, or in the head; it is always formed in the upper part of the larynx, at the aperture of the glottis. It is, however, formed higher, or lower in the throat, according to its degree of acuteness, or gravity. At the command of the will, the larynx may be elevated, or depressed, and the aperture of the glottis enlarged, or diminished. The larynx is the most depressed, and the aperture of the glottis the most dilated, when the gravest sound is formed; and the larynx is the most elevated, and the aperture

1-Do

It is said that the ear is capable of perceiving nine octaves.
Voce di petto (Ital.), voice from the breast. Voce di testa,

voice from the head.

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